Biography

Joe Morton was born on October 18, 1947 in New York, New York, USA. The Son of a U.S. Army intelligence officer he spent parts of his childhood in West Germany and Okinawa. After his fathers death under mysterious circumstances in Germany while helping integrate overseas Army bases…more

Quotes

Joe Morton: Nothing ever happens the way you think it's going to happen. I left school wanting to do Shakespeare and the Greeks, and I ended up doing musicals because I could sing. It moved me very quickly. . . . But it was never anything I wanted to do. It looked like a dead-end situation unless I was going to be a recording artist or go on to do musicals.

Joe Morton: (about how his father's death affected his work) I spend a lot of time doing characters like Mike James, who go around avenging everyone else's wrongs - or characters like I play in classical theater, who are always avenging their father's deaths.

Joe Morton: (about getting to play a bad guy) No, as long as it has a point of view. If there's a reason for this guy to be a bad guy, then that's terrific. I'd love, actually, to play somebody who is really smart and really horrible [laughs].

Joe Morton: I make it a habit of never trying to judge what an audience might think, only because all points of view are too close, because we're doing it every day, I think that the actor's point of view is sometimes too close to what the material actually is. So when you get fresh eyes and bring in the audience on it, you kind of get a more fully-rounded idea of what it is that you're doing.

Mr. Morton's first movie role, as the top-billed star of Brother From Another Planet, required no vocalizations at all (he was totally silent).

Excellent performance, and very expressive. A good choice by John Sayles. The role Mr. Morton plays is a very sympathetic one. After seeing this film, I was certain I'd be seeing more of this actor. What I found most unusual about the role, is that it apparently was written to omit even the involuntary and accidental vocalizations we all produce, thus making the character even more believable as extra-terrestrial. When you see this character on-screen you are made ready to accept mutes as fully capable, even in communication. Fans of movies or tv are encouraged to seek out this first of Joe Morton's films for its message of slavery, freedom and brotherhood (and the headlining messenger).moreless

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